Tuesday, 15 March 2016

The following is a shortened
version of part of my book How not to
make millions – but still enjoy a rich rural life. I thought it might make
an interesting blog for vegans and vegetarians to read.

I have never met a farmer who is
a vegan. It rather runs contrary to the notion of what a farmer is, but, just to
show that I am willing to try to help those who want to grow food by
alternative methods to my own I have given some thought to setting up a vegan
farm. I felt I should do this because despite my own views I accept that some
vegans might want to produce their own food – and sales to other vegans could
be a lucrative business. I know there are smaller scale vegan producers, but I
am thinking in terms of a bigger farm.

Whilst grassland (or the herbage
naturally appearing due to non-cultivation) that is cultivated for a while and
then allowed to return to a grazing area appears to have been around as long as
there have been farmers, the 4 years
grass/4 years cropping rotation is, I think, a little over 100 years old. It
may be older but I have not seen it documented in detail before that. It is my
favourite for a truly sustainable (that overused word again!) system of
farming. Robert H. Elliott developed this way of farming at Clifton Park on the
Scottish/English border and it is commonly referred to as the Clifton Park
System. His book is available on line if you search. It is called The Clifton Park System of Farming and
is well worth acquiring by anyone interested in maintaining the fertility of
their land.

I regret I cannot advise a suitable
location in many countries of the world, simply because I have only farmed in
four. The land must be capable of growing grass without burning off in summer
or killed by low winter temperatures and since there will be no livestock all
land has to be cultivatable, with the ability to grow a wide range of crops. This
restricts our vegan farm to favoured parts of only some countries, but it is essential
to realise it will not work if the land is not suitable. Livestock cannot be
grazed on ground unsuitable for cultivation as in a normal farm.

Size is not critical for the purpose of
the exercise. Let us just assume it is big enough for everyone to recognise it
as a farm. There is no upper size limit. We will further assume that it has
been well maintained in the past so the land is in a good state of fertility,
and that the new vegan owner has the knowledge and experience to operate the
wide range of machinery and equipment required. It should be noted that this
would be a labour intensive farm even with a full complement of modern
equipment. Land in poor condition will take a long time to become ready to use
the farm in a veganic way.

It is of paramount importance to maintain
the Organic Matter content of the soil across the whole farm. I would split it
into eight equal sized blocks, and crop each block for four years then four
years in pasture in each rotation. It may not be possible in a stockless
situation to have as many cropping years as pasture, so longer in pasture and
less cropping may be necessary, with perhaps an increase in the number of
blocks, but we will try 4 + 4. I say blocks because to equalise the size of the
areas there might be a different number of fields in each block. That is not
important so long as they remain within their own one eighth of the total area.

Additionally, since I would want to avoid
buying nitrogen fertilisers if at all possible I would try having the pasture phases
as a pure stand of white clover. I have no experience of using just clover for
this purpose, and I doubt if many other people have either, but it is worth
attempting if you are a vegan. White clover will persist easily for the time required;
it forms a good ground cover and roots deeply. It is also easy to keep clover
mowed short (sow a prostrate variety) as it would need to be in order to allow
the mowings to be dragged underground by our friends rather than smother the
living plants. It is also easy to kill out for the cropping phases. It would be
necessary to buy any nutrients that soil analyses show are required, and also
of course to replace those used by crops that are grown. This is to ensure it
remains a sustainable system. I would prefer to test before and after the
pasture phase to give an indication of nutrients removed during each phase. I
would make as much compost as I possibly could.

What crops are grown will determine the
machinery and equipment required. The first decision is probably whether or not
to grow your own fuel oil. A lot of fuel will be used in the constant mowing of
the pastures phases in addition to the cultivations and harvesting of the
arable crops. I think I would grow my own, partly to be self-sufficient in fuel
(some tractors can be run on straight vegetable oil) and partly to avoid using
fossil fuel. A reasonable crop might leave a surplus to sell so there could
still be some human food derived from the crop. I must point out, however, that
I would never consume these refined vegetable oils myself. I have an inbuilt
aversion to any food that needs a manufacturing process to make it edible. I
also point blank refuse to consume food that is fortified with vitamins or
minerals, and would never take supplements. I want my food to provide all I
need. In suitable areas olives could be grown for human oil needs.

The oil would be the first crop after
clover, and if I did not grow it I would make the first crop a cereal. Perhaps
half and half might even be a better idea. Wheat could be grown in countries
where bread making quality is achievable without high nitrogen inputs. A
failure to reach this quality usually means the wheat goes for stock feed,
which vegans would not want to happen. The reason for using these two crops is
that I would use a grassland mouldboard plough to turn in the clover, burying
the clover top growth at the bottom of the furrow and leaving it undisturbed
during the first year of cropping. Very shallow cultivations to prepare the
seed bed are therefore necessary. Both the oil and cereal crops would benefit
from the accumulated nitrogen from the clover growth. If the area is not
suitable for bread making quality wheat, then an alternative cereal crop could
be grown. The choice may be limited by climate but maize, oats or rye for human
consumption are the most likely.

Throughout the cropping phase there will
be a decreasing level of available soil nitrogen each year, so I would have
years two to four growing crops that more or less allowed for this. I would
avoid the very high nitrogen demanders such as cabbage and the oriental
brassicas and some of the possibilities below are more likely to be grown in
the kitchen garden. This is where I would have all perennial crops including
fruit and nuts. Again another reason to choose a “soft” area. Many fruits and
nuts need warm conditions.

Potatoes would be a good choice for years
two and three, spreading the disease risk by growing some earlies as well as
maincrop. I am making the assumption that vegans are also opposed to the use of
herbicides and fungicides. I would use half my available second year arable land
for the maincrop potatoes and use half my available compost on them. Leeks, all
the leaf beets and beetroot fit in here too, and if you had the labour force
available to harvest them, and the market, you could grow some on a field
scale.

The third year I would grow only early
and second early potatoes on the half of the land that did not grow potatoes
the previous year and use the other half of my compost on these. This way one
quarter of the cropping land is in potatoes each year – spreading the machinery
over a long season. There is always a market for quality potatoes, they will
use the compost to best advantage, and the whole area receives some compost in
either the second or third cropping year. In year three the other half (that
had potatoes the previous year) could take most of the non-cabbage brassicas plus
squashes, pumpkins and lettuce. Year four is for the lowest nitrogen demanders
– a big range, beans, all alliums except leeks, and all the root crops except
potatoes and beets. Even less demanding of nitrogen are garlic and peas. Then
back to pasture.

Whilst I do believe this would work for
individual vegan farmers, and using correct fertilisation techniques would make
the yields undoubtedly better than organic farming and more on a par with
conventional farming, it is still a low productivity farm because the land is
only producing food for half the time. The same system with grazed livestock
produces food every year, so the vegan system is not a good one for feeding the
whole world.